Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Submission to

The Review of the National Innovation System

April 2008

Australian Broadcasting Corporation Submission to the Review of the National Innovation System

Introduction

The ABC believes it is crucial for organisations to develop a culture of innovation in order to encourage new ideas, develop creative thinking and ensure flexibility to cope with a constantly-changing environment. The current review of the national innovation system provides an opportunity to articulate linkages between the activities of the creative sector and its potential to contribute to national innovation and growth.

The ABC itself has a long history of introducing and encouraging innovative programming and media technologies in order to best serve the interests of Australian audiences. Further, in February 2007, the Corporation undertook a restructure of its activities that was in part aimed at more consciously fostering a culture of innovation amongst its staff.

The ABC would therefore like to take this opportunity to illustrate how it has approached the innovation challenge and discuss the role of the public broadcaster in contributing to an enhanced Australian innovation culture. The submission includes a case study of how the Corporation has used the most advanced thinking about innovation from around the world to create an internal culture of innovation and deliver additional value to the Australian people.

In addition, the ABC believes that, as a national broadcaster, it has the capacity to contribute to the development of greater levels of innovative activity throughout the nation. This includes working with institutions and individuals within the creative sector to deliver outcomes that benefit all Australians. In this role, the ABC can act as a driver, bringing players together to enhance creativity and innovation.

Why the ABC strives to be innovative

The ABC's Charter, set out in section 6 of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983, requires the Corporation to "provide within Australia innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services of a high standard". This creates a requirement for the organisation to think differently, to think creatively and to take risks in the kinds of content it produces, as well as the way it distributes this content to audiences.

However, even in the absence of this legislative obligation, there would be clear imperatives for the Corporation to pursue innovation.

Traditional media organisations facing today's rapidly-changing digital environment need to be flexible and think differently about their core business to continue to attract audiences

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and remain relevant. Australian and global media businesses have responded to this challenge in different ways, with some companies moving reluctantly and late into the digital media space, and others taking risks early and gaining competitive advantage in the process. Most media companies have now recognised that in this environment, constant innovation is crucial for survival.

The ABC recognised this early and has for the last twelve years been actively exploring digital media platforms such as online, mobile, interactive television, digital television, internet broadcasting and virtual worlds.

As the national broadcaster, the ABC is a leading player in the lives of Australians, providing education, entertainment and civic and cultural engagement. The Corporation has a responsibility to its audiences and stakeholders to keep pace with their changing media habits and continue to reach them in new and different ways. Innovation is the key to operating flexibly in this shifting environment.

Examples of ABC innovation throughout its history

Programming

Conscious of its Charter responsibility, the ABC has always taken a creative and innovative approach to its radio and television programming. Traditionally, the ABC has taken risks in nurturing new talent, creating a safe space for unknown actors, producers, directors and ideas to grow and develop. This has applied across comedy, music, news, drama and a range of other genres. Well-known examples of this include the introduction of serious current affairs in Australia through This Day Tonight and Four Corners; cutting edge comedy exemplified by The Norman Gunston Show, Kath & Kim, the Chaser team, and Chris Lilley; science broadcasters like Dr Karl; new Australian music through triple j and triple j Unearthed; and media innovators such as Andrew Denton. In many of these cases, the ABC launched careers which then led to success in the commercial media environment within Australia and internationally.

The ABC is also the only Australian media organisation with a clear commitment to specialist genres that bear directly on innovation, such as science, the arts and education. For example, its science content has historically included television series such as The Inventors, Towards 2000 and Quantum, while the current line-up includes Catalyst, The New Inventors and Sleek Geeks, radio program The Science Show, the ABC Science Online web portal and oneoff programs, such as the practical environmental series Carbon Cops.

Technology

The ABC has long understood the importance of ensuring that it can reach all Australians across a number of different platforms and devices. At times, this has meant exploring technologies well before other media players were prepared to commit.

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In 1995, the ABC became one of the first Australian media organisations to launch its own website. It expanded into broadband video in 2001 when this was deemed too risky by its commercial counterparts. It has been experimenting with digital radio for at least seven years. It has been exploring interactive television since 2001, while even now the free-to-air industry had made no commitment to that platform. It launched one of the first digital multichannels in 2005. It has distributed content on mobile telephones since 2002. More recently, it has launched in beta mode a full screen Internet broadcasting service.

Experimentation and Creativity

As a creative organisation, the ABC has always been fortunate to have many talented and creative staff who are passionate about their craft. Many have informal networks, both within the organisation and the wider creative community. Great ideas can often start informally as experiments that provide proof of concepts before being developed more formally. Harnessing this culture of experimentation, often with limited resources, is an important element of the ABC's success as a creative organisation and will be critical to its future success.

Case study: creating a culture of innovation within the ABC

In the last twelve months, there has been a renewed and more conscious commitment to innovation within the Corporation. The driving force behind this has been a clear understanding of the need for constant innovation and flexibility in the changing digital era. The restructure of the organisation in February 2007 was specifically designed to make digital and new media integral to everything the ABC does. In doing so the restructure and the culture shift that has accompanied it has enhanced internal and external collaboration and encouraged creativity and risk-taking.

Restructure

The essential change in the 2007 restructure of the ABC was to make digital media content production and multi-platform delivery "business as usual" for the whole Corporation. Key changes included:

? The integration of the ABC News Online unit with the news and current affairs team into a rebadged ABC News Division to develop the most content rich news site in Australia, drawing on the wealth of audio and video content gathered by ABC journalists every day;

? Integrating ABC2 into the Television Division to improve the synergies between the two channels and creating a structure that can sustain additional digital television channels in the years ahead;

? Accelerating the process of turning each of the ABC's 60 local radio stations across Australia into hubs for digital content generation ? providing both audio and video content for radio broadcasts, local ABC websites and television programming;

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The restructure reallocated staff skilled in web development (producers, designers and developers) to the TV, Radio and News divisions, giving them responsibility for content output across multiple platforms (e.g. television programs, websites, online games, etc) and ownership over the challenge of digital media delivery.

At the same time, a new division called ABC Innovation was created to act as a catalyst for change. This division was given responsibility for working closely with other areas of the ABC on collaborative projects that experiment with new technologies and new ideas.

Cultural shift

The restructure has been accompanied by a number of initiatives that have contributed to a cultural shift towards a more flexible and innovative workforce at the ABC. Support from senior levels of management is crucial in setting the tone for the kind of culture where innovation can flourish. The ABC is demonstrating a preparedness to support new ideas and to recognise and reward staff who take innovative approaches.

A key dimension to this cultural shift towards greater innovation is greater collaboration, both cross-divisionally within the ABC, and externally. All senior managers' job plans now include specific requirements on collaboration and there is a clearly articulated expectation that collaborative approaches should be followed. One of the challenges for the ABC in the future is to encourage further collaboration, internally and externally, as well as becoming more effective at learning from failure and more adept at reaching out to audiences to enlist their help, such as through beta trials of new services.

Benchmarking the ABC's innovation culture

As well as restructuring the organisation and focusing on cultural change, the ABC has looked to national and international expertise on how to create a culture of innovation in an organisation. Over the last twelve months, external experts have worked with ABC staff on creativity and innovation issues. These have included Professor Mark Dodgson, Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre at UQ Business School; Ralph Kerle, CEO, Creative Leadership Forum; Kevin Anderson, blogger and Guardian columnist; and John Buchanan, Director, The Entertainment Technology Centre, Carnegie Mellon University.

The ABC believes that benchmarking performance in innovation against best practice in other industries is critical to success. One benchmarking tool the ABC has found useful is the "innovation checklist" developed by Mark Dodgson, which was presented to ABC staff at an internal innovation conference. Against this list, the ABC performed well on several criteria:

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